Jana Says

15 truths about money

November 16, 2012 by Jana 24 Comments

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 5 years or so reading personal finance blogs, message boards, books, websites…you name it, I’ve read it. I’ve read the books and information you’re “supposed” to read and a few that maybe don’t give the greatest information. I’ve absorbed stories of the successful and those affected by the recession. I’ve embraced get out of debt stories (and have even told a few of my own). But the more I read, the more I realize that there are a certain number of “money truths”, and when we read or write them, we’re just putting our own spin on them.

It’s kind of like how TV shows or movies recycle types of characters or plot lines. There’s only a finite amount of ideas, but how you present those ideas is infinite. Each writer or blogger is going to give you these money truths, hopefully grounded in their experiences and knowledge and not trying to pass themselves off as something they’re not. Those stories are what make the truths interesting. And those stories are what make the information stick.

I’ll tell you that Money magazine makes my eyes go dry from boredom. There are some blogs and websites I can’t read anymore because they’re dull and preachy and kind of condescending. And I have stopped reading several books because, although they came highly recommended, I couldn’t get through 4 pages. I retained almost nothing from those (although a small nugget may slip through now and again. My brain isn’t totally blocked). But the blogs, books, and websites that spin that information in an entertaining and engaging way? That’s the information that seeped in and stuck to the recesses of my brain.

Based on all of this, I’ve come up with my list of 15 Truths about Money That Shape the Way I Think. And here they are:

Marry for love, not for money. But make sure you talk about money.
Spend money on things that matter to you even if someone else tells you it’s a waste.
Have a budget. You need to know where your money is coming from and where it’s going.
Take time to enjoy what’s free even if you have more money than you can spend. No amount of money can replace the beauty of sunset or a rainbow or playing fetch with a dog or the warmth of a hug.
Do something you love every day.
Know your financial priorities and plan accordingly.
Save money even if it’s $5 per month or loose change in a jar on the counter, make an effort to save.
Know the resources in your community just in case you fall on hard times.
Give back. It can be time, services, goods, or money. But give something.
Don’t judge someone else’s choices. Because what you see may not be what it appears.
Ask for help if you need it and don’t be ashamed.
The Joneses are idiots. Ignore them, in real life and on Facebook.
It’s okay not to follow every piece of advice dispensed. Do what works for you.
Not all advice is universal. Some will not apply to you. That’s doesn’t make it bad advice, it just makes it useless to you. Don’t berate someone else for using it.
Money should never be more important than your loved ones.

I’m not going to say that I’m perfect and I abide by these every day. But I do try.

And that’s good enough.

Readers, would you add anything to the list? What would you add?

A stolen piano and other robberies: How to be safe when traveling

November 14, 2012 by Jana 16 Comments

The following is a guest post from Pauline Paquin, a French girl who has recently started to blog over at Reach Financial Independence (and one of the mentees in the Bloggers Helping Bloggers program. My mentee, actually. She’s awesome). Born and raised in Paris, Pauline blogs about how she has been traveling the world for the past 10 years, while trying to build wealth and achieve financial independence, and how you can follow your dreams and reach your goals too. You can follow Pauline on Twitter @RFIndependence.

I don’t care much about material things. Being safe and healthy is what matters most to me. It is a good
thing to have, considering all the stuff that I have lost, damaged, or have been stolen over the years.

The piano
My piano was stolen when I was living in Guatemala. I know, it’s not something you can sneak up your
sleeve and leave my house with. I was about to move out of the country after living there for three
years, and selling my stuff on the local ads website. A guy contacted me , saying he would send movers
over, they would hand me a bank certified check and leave with my piano. This is common practice
here, so I accepted. When they arrived bright and early at 7am, I didn’t realize that it was so I couldn’t
call the bank and confirm the check. Until the fake check bounced a few days later.

WHAT I DID: Call the bank who ”issued” the check to warn them. They knew about the scam. In my
defense, how many of you know what a certified check from bank X looks like? Call the police. They knew too, and told me to put other ads under another name with their cellphone number, and they would call when they catch the thieves. They never called.

The first robbery
Guatemala is known mostly for its robberies. During the three years I lived there, I heard all kind of
scary stories happening to my friends. Getting mugged at gunpoint, or kidnapped as a kid, most upper
class families lived in fear, with bodyguards and houses surrounded by barbwire. I thought I was
smarter. I didn’t show off. I cycled around, I had no schedule to track me, and as a foreigner I could be
making minimum wage working for a non profit. Not the best target.

It worked. Until I started thinking I was untouchable. Once, I withdrew about $400 to buy a fridge
(didn’t have a credit card yet), went to the shoe shop next door, left my purse on the floor while I tried
the shoes on, and found the money missing.

[Read more…]

Good meeting habits to practice now

November 12, 2012 by Jana 5 Comments

This post, written by me, was originally posted on Fiscal Phoenix. The content is reposted with permission.

As a (former) government worker, I’ve attended my fair share of meetings (and I’ve probably attended your fair share of meetings). Where I work(ed), people love to meet. In one of my previous positions, my unit would hold meetings to talk about when we would hold meetings. It was ridiculous how much time was wasting sitting around a table, discussing nothing, getting nowhere and leaving with less information than I started with.

But more than the pointless aspect of most meetings, one thing I’ve observed is the poor behavior that runs rampant throughout those meetings. From entry level staff on up to managers and directors, there is no shortage of people who are rude and inconsiderate during meetings.

It’s important that you don’t set yourself up as one of those people. If you want to advance in your career and develop a reputation as a responsible, dependable worker, one of those surest ways to make that happen is how you behave during meetings. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Show up on time. Or even a few minutes early. Doing so shows not only that you are responsible enough to remember the meeting time but it also exhibits respect for the rest of the attendees. If you do need to show up late for an acceptable reason, don’t make a spectacle of yourself when you walk into the room. I have been at enough meetings where people have walked in late and caused such a commotion that the whole meeting had to stop. I have also been in enough meeting where the person calling the meeting keeps everyone waiting. That, to me, is the epitome of disrespectful behavior.
Be prepared. Almost nothing makes me more upset than being in a meeting with people who are completely unprepared to talk about the agenda. It’s why agendas (for the most part) are sent out in advance. So the attendees can review and understand the subject matter of the meeting. You look much more professional if you not only are aware of the meeting agenda but you are prepared to speak intelligently on the subject matter. And you bring the information that’s asked of you.
Listen to the people who are speaking. Don’t whisper to your co-workers or pass notes or do anything that you would get in trouble for in a high school classroom. There’s a reason you got in trouble for it—it’s unacceptable. The people who are speaking may not particularly enjoy public speaking and those types of distractions are not only disrespectful, but they can throw a person off. Also, before you interrupt with any questions, especially in the middle of a speaker’s sentence, wait for the person to finish.
Watch your nonverbals. I once got into trouble from an old supervisor (who is a post in and of herself) because I was really pissy during a meeting and my body language showed it. Even though I wasn’t using words, my conduct was extremely unprofessional; that’s just as bad. While you may not know it, people are watching you (which sounds kind of creepy but it’s true). They are watching to see how attentive you are, if you’re alert and not falling asleep, if you’re engaged, your facial expressions…everything. All of these behaviors help others develop a perception of you, and it’s important that you make this perception as positive as possible.

Meetings may not be the most effective or efficient use of time but they do present an opportunity to show another side of your skills. If you can do that, then you’ve turned a waste of time into a possible stepping stone to a promotion.

Recovering from a bad job interview

November 9, 2012 by Jana 11 Comments

This post, written by me, was originally posted on Fiscal Phoenix. The content is reposted with permission.

I recently wrote about what happens when a good job interview goes bad. It’s a terrible experience to know that you’ve blown an opportunity to get promoted or move laterally into a better position. But it’s not something that we can use as reason to never try again.

Recovering from a bad job interview takes time. Your confidence is shaken. You’re frustrated with the situation you caused. You’re angry that you let yourself screw up. You’re upset because you don’t think you’ll get another opportunity like that again. The list of negative emotions resulting from a bad job interview is infinite. But you can’t let it get to you. You need to take the situation and learn from it, and then move on.

Here are a few tips for moving on from a bad job interview:

Allow yourself to feel all those emotions. Talk about how you’re feeling. If you need to cry or scream, do it. It’s healthy and perfectly acceptable. It’s hard to move on from a bad event if you don’t deal with it.
Objectively review the interview. When we’re in the thick of our emotions, it’s difficult to think objectively about what went down. Once you’re not as emotional, sit down with your spouse or a friend or even just a pen and paper and talk about what happened. Make a list of everything you did wrong; don’t just blame the interview panel. You need to own what happened.
Focus on what you can do to improve next time. Were you visibly nervous? Horribly unprepared to talk about your skills? Did you have a poor understanding of the company and/or position? How about your attire? Did you completely answer the question the interviewer was asking or did you skirt the question? If you find a deficiency in any of these areas, work on them for your next interview.
Practice. This seems ridiculous but whenever I would have a job interview, I practice my answers to anticipated questions (stock questions like “how do you handle conflict” and “what are your weaknesses”). I once had the opportunity to meet with a professional job coach (for free!) and he told me that practicing was the key to success. He also told me that you should go into any job interview with 3 things that you want to make sure you impress upon the panel. Practice these 3 things as well.
Try again. Do not let yourself get so dejected from one bad interview that you convince yourself to never try again. You must keep applying and interviewing in order to get better (and to put the bad one even further behind you). One blown job interview is not the end of your career advancement. Trust me on that. Less than two years after my horrible interview, I was in a better job with even higher pay. Why? Because I refused to let it stop me.

I don’t know one person who’s interviewed perfectly every time. I think in order to get better, we have to mess up. We need to make those mistakes so we can improve our skills. Messing up gives us a chance to pause and reflect on our weakness, making us more viable candidates for the next position.

Readers, what lessons have you learned from bombing at a job interview? How did you recover and move on?

4 ways a bad mattress costs you money

November 7, 2012 by Jana 8 Comments

Like most people, I treasure sleeping. Not just because it’s relaxing and fun and healthy and necessary but because it’s rare that I actually get a good night’s sleep.

It’s not that I have bad habits causing me to sleep poorly. I don’t watch TV before bed, I have a regular routine, my room is pretty much devoid of light, all my electronics are kept in another part of the house, and I try to keep a decent bedtime. My house is a comfortable temperature and I remember to bring my fuzzy blanket. The dogs even know their places in the bed!

So why do I sleep poorly?

b0910_PlainF — This should be a source of comfort, not pain

My mattress is a piece of crap.

It didn’t start out that way when we bought it 8+ years ago. It was wonderful back then. But, as we know, mattresses wear out over time (which is probably why it’s suggested to flip them but we have a pillow top so that rules out that plan. Helpful hint: never buy a pillow top mattress. Just don’t) which can lead to a myriad of problems. Including financial ones.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at a few ways a bad mattress can cost you money beyond forking over hundreds of dollars for a new one:

Spending money on vices. If you’re like me, you have tendency to spend money when you’re tired. And not just on impulse purchases or unnecessary ones. You spend money on vices like junk food, caffeinated beverages, energy drinks…anything that’ll give you that quick pick-me-up to combat being tired. This happened to me more when I was working an office job. There was no time (or place) for a nap so I had to do whatever was necessary to get through the day. At the end of a week, it was conceivable that I spent around $10 ($2 per day) on junk just to keep me awake and functioning.
Decreased productivity. Speaking of functioning, when I’m tired, I can barely do anything except the minimum that is required of me. And, some days, I can’t even form a coherent sentence in an email! So I do nothing. Then the unfinished projects start to mount and the ones that are finished are such shit that I can’t let them meet anyone else’s eyes. This is not a great way to earn a living, especially when you’re trying to building a business from the ground up. Poor productivity costs me money, time, and possible clients.
Forgetfulness. I’ve talked before that I’ve had to automate a bunch of bills due to my mental health issues. And that’s been working out splendidly so far. Not only is it one less task to remember but it makes my life so much easier. Especially when you consider the fact that when I’m tired, I’m very forgetful. I forget to pay bills that are sitting on my desk, I forget to renew library books despite the email reminders, I forget to carefully menu plan and create a grocery list, and I forget to…well, I forget what else I forget. But these things all cost money in fines, late fees, and last minute trips to the store.
Aches and pains. The worst part about a bad mattress is all the accompanying pain: headaches, back aches, shoulder pain, neck spasms. If you’re never experienced any of this, consider yourself lucky because they fucking hurt. And the only way to manage them on a daily and affordable is to pop pain relievers like ibuprofen. But even that can start to add up if you’re going through a bottle a week. Then there’s the added bonus of needing to go to a chiropractor for adjustments, which comes with its own expenses like co-pays (or total out of pocket cost if your insurance doesn’t cover it), time off from work, gas or other transportation to get there, and any ancillary products you may need to buy (heating pad, etc). What should just be a minor inconvenience has now become a huge expense.

I wish I had a great solution for sleeping on a bad mattress. If you’re like us, you have to manage until you can afford to replace the horrendous one. But, if you’re smarter than us, you’ll do this: have a mattress replacement fund. We all remember to have travel funds, baby expense funds, car repair funds, pet emergency funds. Why not add a mattress replacement fund into the mix. A few dollars a month will ensure that by the time you need a new mattress, you’ll have the money to buy it.

And believe me when I say that the $10 or so a month you’ll put aside is way less expensive in the long run than dealing with the other consequences.